Brown releases new security strategy

LONDON, March 19 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the release of a national security strategy that maps out future security initiatives.

Appearing before Parliament, Brown announced the national security strategy publication acknowledges lessons learned from terrorism and civil emergencies and also outlines future security plans, 10 Downing Street reported.

"While our obligation to ensure the safety of the British people and to protect the national interest is fixed and unwavering, the nature of the threats and the risks we face has changed beyond recognition and confounds all the old assumptions about national defense and international security," Brown said in a statement.

Brown says the national security strategy is an effort to establish a plan to deal with the evolving nature of threats facing the nation and update the emergency response coordination. The new strategy also details the country's plans for stamping out violence abroad in Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan and Darfur among other regions fostering violence extremism.

"We need to mobilize all the resources available to us: the power of our military, police and security services; the persuasive force and reach of diplomacy; the authority of strengthened global institutions which, with our full support, can deploy both 'hard' and soft power; and because arms and authority will never be enough, the power of ideas, of shared values and hopes that can win over hearts and minds," Brown said.